Order of the Kingdom: Nasira's Second Revenge
by KeybladeDetweiler
Summary: The Order discovers that the Sultan of Agrabah and his daughter Jasmine have disappeared, and that there is a new ruler on the throne. Can they find out the truth behind the royals' disappearance and the mysterious new ruler? (Part of the SotDW continuity. Other major characters include: Riku, Ven, Vince, and the characters of Aladdin. Sora x Alex takes the backseat for this story)
1. Chapter 1: Trouble In Agrabah

On a warm Friday night, the six members of the "Order of the Kingdom", as they were formally known, were congregated in Alex's bedroom to prepare for another weekend of work. _Beauty and the Beast_ played on the TV near the far wall. Alex was on her bed reading a volume of manga as she leaned against her boyfriend Sora, who had an arm around her as he watched the movie. Vince was sorting through his baseball cards, occasionally distracted by a bored-out-of-her-mind Spinelli, who wandered around the room aimlessly. Riku was at Alex's computer desk, typing up another mission report for Prescott, and Ven was sitting down with his legs crossed in front of him, leaning against the bed as he watched the movie.

"So, when's the pizza gonna get here?" asked Spinelli as she picked up one of Vince's cards and pretended to look at it before lazily tossing it aside. Vince shot her a glare before reaching to pick it up.

"I ordered it twenty minutes ago. Chill." Riku replied, turning from his work for only a moment to send a stern look towards the raven-haired nuisance.

"Well, it better get here before Prescott does."

"Why? You don't want him taking the leftovers with him like last time?" asked Ven, turning his deep blue eyes from the TV to look at her.

"No. If he gets here first, we'll never eat. We just get his dumb lecture."

"Spin just doesn't want to eat cold pizza, that's all. She's just complaining." Vince said with a snicker. Ven laughed.

"Hey!" the dark-haired girl protested, angrily stomping over to Vince to look him in the eye. "Shut it, Vinnie, or you can say goodbye to your idols!" She picked up a particularly shiny card and waved it in the air for a moment before preparing to rip it right down the middle.

"No, Spin! Don't rip that one! It's _limited edition_!"

"So?"

"It means there were only _fifty_ made! It's super rare."

"Well, if this one means so much to you…" She was just about to begin tearing it before Riku quickly snatched it from her and tossed it back to Vince.

"Quit trying to start stuff, Spin." The silverette said before turning back to his work again.

"I wasn't trying to start anything." The girl huffed, sticking her tongue out at Riku before turning away. "I was just messing with him." She hopped up and strode over to Ventus, then sat down beside him. He looked at her for a moment, then turned his attention back to the TV, where Lumiere and company were in the middle of "Be Our Guest".

"So, newbie…" she began.

"I'm not "newbie"! I've been with you guys for a few months now." Ven protested, quickly turning to give her an annoyed glare. "If you're gonna call me something, call me Ven, like everyone else."

"Alright, _Vent_." Spinelli stifled a giggle. "Anyway- Hey?! What the whomp was that?" she asked, rubbing the back of her head. Something had hit her just as she was starting her sentence. Giggling from behind her alerted her to her assailant. She turned to look at the bed, where Sora and Alex were still sitting as though nothing had happened.

"Alright, which one of you was it?"

"Me." Alex raised her book in the air. "Because of what you called Ven."

"Seriously? You threw something at me just 'cuz I said his name wrong?"

"Aw, come on. We all know that wasn't a mistake. You were just trying to-"

Alex was cut off by a sudden knocking at the door. Everyone turned to look at it, knowing exactly who was behind it.

"Aw, come on! Already?" Spinelli moaned. "He couldn't have waited another year?"

"Oh, be quiet!" came Prescott's annoyed voice from the other side of the door. "One of you open the door for me. My hands are full."

Obediently, Ven got up from his seat to open the door, and Gremlin Prescott floated into the room, holding in his hands a folder that was stuffed full of papers. As soon as he had made it over to the desk, he dropped the folder into Riku's lap. Several papers flew out.

"Thanks." Riku huffed, putting the folder on the desk before bending over to pick up the remaining papers. He noticed that none of the papers were requests for assistance from different worlds; rather, they were all part of one long, detailed report.

"What is this? Is it already time for you to evaluate us?" Riku asked, looking up at the bored Gremlin that served as their superior.

Prescott rolled his eyes. "No, it's not an evaluation. It's a special assignment."

"Sweet, a special assignment! That means something big is going down!" Vince said from his seat.

"Yes, something very big."

"What is it?" Sora asked. "Is Maleficent back? Did a huge swarm of Heartless invade a world?"

"No."

"Did a Princess get abducted by aliens?" Spinelli asked.

"No." Prescott rolled his eyes at the girl's idea.

"Was someone's heart stolen?" asked Ven.

"Well…" Prescott began.

"Wait…I know!" Alex said, cutting him off. "Pink elephants have invaded the castle!"

"What?! Absolutely _not_! Where would you get such a preposterous idea from?"

"It was in a dream I had last night."

"Well, nothing of that sort has happened." To himself, he mumbled, "What jabberwocky. It's all that's to be expected from a group of silly minors. I hate being in charge if them."

"Well, what happened?" asked Vince.

"If all of you will stop guessing, I'll tell you." Prescott huffed. Everyone was silent.

"That's better. I'm sure you all remember Agrabah?"

"That's where Aladdin lives!" Sora said brightly.

"Yes. Well, I've received word that the Sultan and his daughter mysteriously disappeared a few nights ago, and the next morning, a new ruler was on the throne."

"The sultan was kidnapped?!" Ven asked, shocked.

"I'm not sure. But, Aladdin was the one that sent in the call for assistance. He claims to have gone to sleep in his room in the palace the night of the sultan's disappearance, and awoke the next morning in his old home in the city, dressed in his street urchin rags."

"Weird!" Alex said. "Well…what's the name of the new ruler?"

"Nazra or something like that. I can't pronounce it."

"Hmm… never heard that name." Riku said softly. "Anything else to add?"

"No. Your assignment is to go to Agrabah and investigate and figure out what has become of the Sultan and Princess. I would suggest starting with this new ruler. They're bound to know something."

"All right. When do we leave?"

"It's a special assignment. Immediately."

"But the pizza's not here yet!" Spinelli complained.

"We'll stop by Pizza Planet on the way if you really _have_ to have pizza." Riku said, handing the report for their last mission to Prescott. "Come on guys, let's go."

The group got their supplies together and started to head out.

"Alright, Pizza Planet!" Spinelli cheered. As she followed the others out the door, she asked, "Can we go inside?"

"No." Riku replied. "We don't have time. We'll use the drive-thru."

"Aw, man!"


	2. Chapter 2: A New Ruler

Ven, who had gone ahead of everyone else on his Keyblade glider, was the first to make it to Agrabah. After a quick pit stop for pizza, the rest of the group arrived in the Gummi Ship.

"The city is quieter than usual." Ven reported, running up to his friends when he saw them walking his way.

"I wonder why?" Alex said, looking around.

"Who knows?" Riku said. "Anyway, let's go see if we can get an audience with whoever's in charge now."

They started off towards the palace, passing through the bazaar on their way. Only a fraction of the people that were usually there at that time of day were there now.

"You were right, Ven. It is a lot quieter." Sora said. "There's barely anyone here."

In a few minutes, the group had made it to the palace gates. Guards stood on both sides of the ornate doors, watching them approach. They were garbed in the normal uniform of Agrabah's royal guards, and appeared to be the same ones that normally guarded the palace, but there was something very different about them. Their skin was now a pale blue, almost like Genie's.

"Hey, what's up with them?" Sora whispered. "They look different."

"Maybe they're all clones of Genie?" Spinelli suggested as they stopped about a foot or two away from the doors and the guards in front of them.

"What business do you have in the palace?" the guard on the right asked, eyeing the group in a suspicious way.

"You guys should know us by now; we're the Order of the Kingdom. We're here on business." Riku replied, showing them the small medallion that signified his status as an Order member. The other youths followed suit.

"Well…no one told us of your coming. We cannot allow you to pass."

"But we need to speak with the new ruler. It's important."

"Well, she might have time for a short audience with you. Go ahead, and we'll see what we can do." The guard said before calling up to the guard tower above, "Open the gates!"

"_She_?!" the group quietly said in unison before walking through the now open gate. Halfway up the palace steps, they were informally greeted by the captain of the palace guards, Razoul. He also had the same blue-ish hued skin as the other guards.

"Although I am sure she will not be pleased to see you, I'll take you to see Sultana Nasira, only because of who you are." He said to them. "Follow me."

"Sultana?" Spinelli said in an attempted whisper. "What is she, a nut?"

Razoul scowled at her. "Obviously, you do not know that the proper title for a female Sultan in our city is Sultana. It would do you well to remember this so that you do not disrespect her when you speak to her, unless you wish to bring about her wrath."

"How mean is this queen of yours?" Ven asked. A glare from Razoul prompted him to add, "Sultana, I mean.".

"She's very just, as long as you don't get on her bad side." Came the reply.

Razoul led them down a long hallway and into the throne room. Sitting on the solid gold elephant head-shaped throne was not the cheerful, short and plump Sultan they were accustomed to seeing, nor was it Aladdin. It was a slender, black haired woman garbed in a long crimson dress and holding a golden staff. Her hair was styled much like Princess Jasmine's; she even wore a headpiece similar to the Princess's, but with a ruby instead of a topaz stone. She looked up at the group upon hearing them enter.

"Who are they, Razoul?! Why have you brought them to me?!" she demanded, standing up furiously as she glared at her Captain of the Guard.

"Some "just" queen." Riku said under his breath.

"Yeah; she looks like she's got a bad temper." Ven whispered.

"They are the Order of the Kingdom, your highness. They asked for an audience with you."

"The Order of the Kingdom? I've never heard of such an organization." She turned to look at the youths. "Why have you come?" she asked them.

"We usually come here to help the former sultan, when he and his court ask for our help. When we heard that he went missing and there was a new ruler in power, we came to investigate." Riku said honestly.

"Well," the Queen said, her anger abating some. "I was not informed that there was a group the sultan called if he needed assistance." She said. "But, since you are here…I suppose you can help us solve the mystery of his and his daughter's disappearance."

"That's why we came." Ven said with a smile. "To help, if we can!"

"Yeah. We want to make sure the sultan and princess are okay!" Sora said cheerfully.

Nasira gave them a small smile. "Well then, you can start immediately." She clapped her hands as she ordered a guard to fetch something from the nearby antechamber. When he returned, he brought with him a covered tray and stood before the young group, holding it so that they could all see it.

"We found this in the Sultan's bedchamber." As Queen Nasira said this, the guard lifted the lid of the tray to reveal a piece of white and purple fabric.

"Part of the sultan's robes?" Alex supposed, examining the scrap as best she could from where she stood.

"We're not sure. We've come to believe that it is either part of his robes, or the robes of his assailant."

"Did you find anything else?" asked Ven.

"Yes. There was a much more interesting piece of evidence in the princess's chambers." As she was saying this, another guard came into the room holding a very familiar piece of bric-a-brac.

"Hey, that's Genie's lamp!" Sora cried, recognizing the golden lamp at once.

"Genie?" Nasira asked, confused. "What genie?"

"He's a friend of the royals of Agrabah." Alex explained. "But he was freed from that lamp a while ago."

"Who possesses it now?"

"Aladdin had it the last time we were here, didn't he?" Vince asked.

"Yeah, he did. He uses it to call Genie when he needs his help." Alex said, continuing to explain the lamp to the queen. "Genie's still connected to the lamp, or something like that."

"Aladdin?" Nasira said, her eyes widening slightly. "Isn't he the princess's new husband?" she asked.

"Yup! He and Jasmine just got married not too long ago!" Sora said happily.

"I see." The queen was grinning now. She looked to Razoul and said, "I believe we've found the culprit. Bring me Aladdin at once!" she commanded.

"Right away, Your Majesty." Razoul said, briefly kneeling before his queen before heading out the doors of the throne room, followed by two other guards.

"What?! Aladdin didn't do it!" Sora objected. "There's no way he'd do anything to the Sultan or Jasmine!"

"Are you certain? Because from the evidence I've seen, it seems to me that Aladdin used that lamp to summon his genie, and ordered it to spirit the Sultan and the Princess away." The queen said, her calm smile still in place.

"It couldn't have been him." Alex said. "There's no way…"

"Well, the background knowledge for the evidence that you so kindly provided certainly makes it seem as though it was." Nasira replied. "Now, thank you kindly for your assistance. You are excused."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Alrighty, I bet you guys are wondering who the heck Nasira is, right? Well…I'm not gonna tell you :D For now, anyway. If you happen to know where she's from, good for you; you probably get a lot of the weird stuff that's going on in the palace of Agrabah. All I can say to those who **_**don't**_** know her is that she's not an OC (Meaning she was in some sort of official Aladdin thing :P).**


	3. Chapter 3: Finding Aladdin

At those last words, a pair of guards began to herd the Order out the door. Knowing that it would be futile to argue with the queen, the group left the palace and wandered around town looking for a place to stay for the night. They eventually stumbled upon an inn, and after getting two rooms, sat together at a table downstairs to discuss their meeting with the queen.

"I don't get it! Why does she think Aladdin is the one behind the Sultan and Jasmine's disappearance?" Sora asked, softly banging a fist on the table.

"Simple. She showed us the evidence, and we told her what we knew. We're the reason Aladdin was thrown in the dungeon." Riku said.

"Yeah. If we had pretended not to know anything, Aladdin would have had a chance." Alex said. "We shouldn't have said anything."

"They still would have come after him anyway." Spinelli said. "Because he's Jasmine's husband, he's still a major suspect in the crime."

"We just helped her single him out." Ven said with a sigh. "I wish there was something we could do to help him."

"Yeah." Vince agreed. Suddenly, he got an idea. "Hey! We could try going to the dungeon to talk with Aladdin! He's gotta know something about all of this."

"How are we going to get there? It's part of the palace, and the guards recognize us." Alex said. "Besides, I'm pretty sure Nasira never wants to see us back in the palace ever again."

"We could try sneaking in. Those guards aren't _that_ alert." Spinelli said.

"Yeah, but if we're caught, there's no telling what will happen to us." Riku said. "We'll have to be careful."

"We could set up some kind of distraction." Alex offered. "Do you guys think Abu got arrested along with Aladdin?"

"Are you kidding? There's no way they'd arrest the monkey!" Spinelli said. "If I had to bet, Abu is probably trying to break Aladdin out of jail right now."

"Hmm…well, my idea was to have one or two of us distract the guards, and then have the other three sneak into the dungeon."

"Distraction is my middle name!" Spinelli said. "I'll do it!"

"Ok."

Sora spoke up. "Hey, wait, I thought your middle name was Funicello. Did you change it?"

"No, it is Funicello. Distraction is just something extra I added in for myself, so I have a better chance at getting picked for these kinds of jobs."

"Oh."

"Okay; I think Spinelli can handle a distraction by herself. The rest of us will sneak in to the palace when the guards aren't looking." Alex finished.

"But the gates would be closed, wouldn't they? How will we get in?" Ven asked.

"I…haven't figured that part out yet."

"We could fly over the palace walls on Carpet!" Sora said, referring to Aladdin's magic, flying carpet.

"Yeah, if we can even find Carpet." Spinelli scoffed.

"Well, it's less of a risk than trying to sneak in." Riku said. "They wouldn't be as likely to see us."

"But once we're in the palace, it won't be long before we're spotted. A bunch of people on a flying carpet is kind of noticeable." Alex said.

"It's the best option we have right now. In the morning, we'll go hunt down Carpet and have him take us to Aladdin. For now, we get some shuteye."

Everyone nodded in agreement, and after a filling dinner, headed for their rooms to get some sleep.

* * *

The next morning, the group woke up bright and early. Riku had the innkeeper hold their rooms for a while longer; he figured that they'd probably be staying in Agrabah for a while. After a quick breakfast, they headed out to find Aladdin's house, the first place they though Carpet would be.

"What if Carpet's out helping Abu?" Sora suddenly asked as they walked through the bazaar. "Then what'll we do?"

"We'll figure something else out if we have to." Alex said. "We _have_ to get in to talk to Aladdin."

Riku was rereading a page of the mission brief that Prescott had given them. "Judging by the help request Aladdin sent in, I don't think he'll be of much help. It sounds like he didn't know what was going on."

"He might. We have to ask."

"Y'know," Ven spoke up. "We could just ask Nasira to let us go and talk to Aladdin. One time, Terra was thrown in jail in this one world, and Aqua and I asked if we could go in to see him. They let us in so we could talk with him for a few minutes."  
"Well, Nasira knows that we're friends of Aladdin, so I don't think she'll let us in." Riku said. "And, Terra was thrown in jail? For what?"

"He scared the world's Princess when he came up behind her to ask for directions. Anyway, we could still try asking. We might not even have to ask Nasira!"

Riku laughed. "Well, it wouldn't hurt to ask."

"I guess." Alex said with a sigh. "But half of us should go look for Carpet anyway, just in case they don't let us in."

"What if they actually let us in?" Ven said with a small smirk.

"Well…let's just go give it a try. Forget about splitting up."

They walked up to the palace gates, where the same pair of guards from the day before were still on guard. One of them caught sight of the group.

"It's them again." He whispered to his partner. To the Order, he curtly said, "What do you want?"

"We'd like to go down to the dungeon to talk to Aladdin." Ven said.

"Why?"

"We have something to tell him."

"Tell us, and we'll pass the message along to him."

"We have to tell it to him privately. It's for only him to hear." Alex said.

"Well, you shall have to tell it to him when he's free. If he isn't executed first." The guard and his companion laughed.

Riku sighed as he reached into his pocket. "I didn't want it to have to come to this, but…" he pulled out a pouch of munny and handed it to the guard. "Here. Now take us to see Aladdin."

The guard opened the pouch and looked in. Then, after whispering something to his companion, he stuffed it in his vest and had the doors opened again. He then had the group follow him inside. On their way to the dungeon entrance, he whispered to Riku, "If you want in next time, you'd better have treasure. I shouldn't be letting you in just for that munny, but I need it for lunch."

He led them to a stone door with a small, barred window on the front. He pulled out a key and unlocked it, swinging it open to reveal a steep staircase that looked like it could have led straight to the center of the earth. They walked down it for what seemed like hours until the floor finally leveled out beneath them and they were walking down a long, musty hallway. Through a door at the end of the hallway was the dungeon itself.

"Security's tight." Spinelli commented.

"Yes. We can't have the prisoners escaping so easily." The guard replied. "Even if they did manage to slip out of their cells, there are traps everywhere to catch them."

"Well, where's Aladdin?" asked Alex.

"This way." The guard said. He led them down a short corridor that took a few left and right turns, and they found themselves in front of another door.

"This is it." He said, unlocking the door. He let them inside, then said, "You have fifteen minutes to speak with him." before closing the door behind them and standing guard in front of it.

They turned from the door to see almost nothing but darkness. The room's only light came from lit torches on the wall. Riku grabbed the nearest one and held it up so that they could get a better look at the room. He moved it to the left, and a shadow stretched across the floor. It appeared to be the shadow of a person shackled against the dungeon wall.

"You think that's him?" Sora whispered.

"Could be. I'll go check." Ven replied. The blonde slowly crept towards the shadow, Riku following him from behind with the torch. He reached into the darkness ahead of him and grabbed what felt like a person's arm. But when Riku had come close enough for him to see what it really was, Ven let out a scream as he stumbled back, whatever he had had his hand on coming with him.

"What is it?" Vince ran over to them. Frightened and unable to see him, Ven threw what he had been holding in the direction of Vince's voice.

"Ah! What is this?!" Vince yelled after catching what had hit him, his voice reverberating off the walls.

"Calm down." Riku said coolly, following the boy's voice right to him. In the light, Vince found himself holding a skeleton arm. He threw it to the ground in disgust, and it crumbled to dust upon hitting the stone floor.

"Why'd you throw that at me?" he asked Ven, who had followed the light over to them.

"Sorry; I get jumpy in the dark." Ven replied softly, looking nervously at the floor.

Suddenly, he felt someone's hand on his shoulder, and when he went to brush it away, he found that he was touching a skeleton hand. He let out another scream and fell forward, falling on top of Vince. They heard Riku let out a chuckle, then looked up and saw him standing over them in the torchlight.

"Was that you, Riku?" Ven asked as he stood up and brushed himself off before helping Vince up. "It wasn't funny! I just told Vince; I get nervous in the dark!"

"It was supposed to be for Sora." Came the reply.

From across the room, they heard Sora call out, "Well you were off by a whole lot Riku! I'm all the way over here!"

Riku laughed, and then was serious again. "Any sign of Aladdin?" he called out.

"Nope."

Riku sighed. "Well, keep looking!"

On the other side of the room, Alex and Sora were continuing their own search for Aladdin.

"You know, I'm starting to think he's not in here." Alex said as she moved the torch she had grabbed around, looking to see if Aladdin was anywhere nearby.

"You might be right. I don't see him anywhere." Sora replied.

"You can't really see anything in here." Alex laughed a little. "But yeah; I think we've been tricked."

They continued walking forward, just about ready to meet back up with the boys on the other side of the room, when Sora tripped. He cried out, and Alex was beside him immediately. She moved the torch so that it lit up the area where he had tripped.

"What was that?" he asked, looking behind him to see what he had stumbled over.

"_Who_ was it," she replied. Sora turned himself around to see that he had tripped over a sleeping Aladdin, who was shackled to the wall. Apparently, being tripped over hadn't woken him.

"We found him!" Alex cried to the others. They ran over. Riku and Ven kneeled down in front of the young man, bringing much needed light.

"Well whaddya know." Riku let out a small laugh. "He was sleeping this whole time."

"How could he sleep in a place like this?" Spinelli grumbled, looking around.

"No idea." Vince said.

"Well we've gotta wake him up. We wasted a lot of time searching; we probably don't have long to talk to him." Alex said. She gave Aladdin a shake, and he awoke with a start.

"Wha-oh, hey guys! What're you doing here?" he asked cheerfully.

"We came looking for you. We want to ask you about Nasira."

"Nasira?" Aladdin's cheerfulness was quickly replaced with contempt. "Oh, her. She's Jafar's sister! She took over Agrabah to avenge his death!"

"Jafar has a sister?" Sora asked, surprised.

"Yeah. She's the one who kidnapped Jasmine and the Sultan; I'm sure of it! She framed me so that she could get me out of the way, but you guys are here! You can stop her!"

"How?" asked Riku.

"You have to find Jasmine and the Sultan and bring them back to Agrabah! That's the only way."

"But we have no idea where they are." Ven reasoned. "Searching for them could take forever!"

"You can ask Genie for help." Aladdin smiled.

"But Nasira has his lamp. We can't call him without it." Sora said.

"That one's a fake. The real one is back at my place!"

"Okay; so all we have to do is go back to your house and use the lamp to call Genie?" Vince recapped.

"Yup."

"Sounds easy enough." Alex said. "Thanks Aladdin."

"No problem! Hurry, though. Who knows what Nasira might try to do next; last time she stole the throne, she almost brought Jafar back from the dead!"

"Can't let that happen again." Riku said. "Let's go, guys."

The group said goodbye to Aladdin and headed for the door. Just as Riku reached out a hand to open it, it swung open for him. They stepped back in shock when they saw who had opened it.


	4. Chapter 4: Band on the Run

It was Nasira, accompanied by the second gate guard and a number of other guards.

"Hey! Where's our escort?" Spinelli snapped.

"He is indisposed at the moment." Nasira said with a wicked smile. "But you won't be needing him where you're going. Guards, take these interlopers to the deepest part of the dungeon!"

The six knew exactly what they had to do. Run. They shoved their way past Nasira and her guards and bolted up the stairs.

"After them!" Nasira ordered. "They won't get far; these dungeons are a maze to those who aren't familiar with them."

They wound their way through seeming endless hallways, turning left and right and right and left. After passing what they thought was the same cell for the fifth time in a row, they stopped to catch their breath and to try to find a different route. After a minute, they started running down a different corridor.

"I wish we had that escort with us right now." Alex panted.

"Me too." Ven agreed. "We'll never find our way out of here without help."

"We should've dropped some breadcrumbs." Spinelli snickered.

"Well, we have to keep going; they can't catch us." Riku said from the head of the group. "We're the only hope Agrabah's got right now."

"Yeah. We just have to keep running until we find the way out." Sora added.

They continued winding their way through the dungeon until they came to what seemed to be a dead end. Riku didn't notice it in time to stop, and ending up slamming into the wall. Sora slammed into his back, Alex into his, Ven into hers, Vince into his, and finally, Spinelli slammed into Vince.

Riku backed away from the wall, rubbing his forehead. "How did I not see that coming?" he murmured.

To their surprise, their chain reaction had activated a secret exit. The bricks moved aside and sunlight flooded the passage, revealing an opening in the wall.

"Whoa!" Sora said with a gasp. "Cool!"

"Well, you know what they say. No pain no gain." Vince said with a shrug as they walked through the exit single file. They found themselves in the palace courtyard, which seemed to be deserted. The passageway closed behind them.

"All of the guards must be with Nasira." Riku said. "Now's our chance to get out of here. Come on."

They speedily walked over to the gate, hoping to get out of the palace before Nasira and the guards made it out of the dungeon.

"Do you think she knows about the secret passageway?" Ven asked as they approached the gate.

"She might, but let's not stick around to find out." Alex replied.

Upon finally making it to the doors, they found them to be shut tight. They knew that the guard in the tower above wasn't going to let them out, and the palace walls were much too high to climb. They were stuck.

"Aw, crap." Spinelli huffed, banging a fist on one of the doors. "What do we do now? They're not going to let us out. She's gonna catch us, for sure! We're gonna be stuck in prison for life!"

"And Agrabah's going to be stuck with Nasira as their queen." Vince said. "Maybe we should have gone to get Carpet first."

"Don't worry guys! I can use my Keyblade glider to get over the wall." Ven said with a confident smile.

"Yeah, _you_ can get over the wall, but what about _us_?" Spinelli snapped.

"I'll run over to Aladdin's place and get the lamp so Genie can help. I'll be back in no time at all!"

"Do you remember where his house is?"

"I _think_ so."

"Hey! Maybe we could all ride on the glider together!" Vince suggested.

"Nah, we'd weigh it down too much. Besides, there isn't enough room for all of us." Riku said.

"I've got an idea!" Sora said brightly. "Princess, have you still got the pixie dust we got from Peter and Tink?"

"I think so," Alex replied, answering to the nickname he used for her. "Let me check."

"Wait, you're saying that you want us to _fly_ over the wall?" Spinelli asked, shocked.

"Well, we don't have many other options." Riku said with a shrug. "And even if they see us, they won't be fast enough to catch us."

"Yeah. I think it's a good plan." Alex agreed as she withdrew the green velvet sack of pixie dust from her shoulder bag.

"Ok. Let's only use a little bit of it; just enough to get us over the wall." Riku said, taking a pinch of the golden dust and sprinkling it over himself. The others followed suit.

"Ok guys, remember: happy thoughts!" Alex said with a smile, and the six of them launched themselves simultaneously into the air, trails of leftover pixie dust streaking behind them. They glided over the wall, too quickly for the guard in the tower to notice them, and landed safely one by one on the other side.

"That was easy." Vince said coolly. "Now we just need to get over to Aladdin's house and find the lamp."

So, they headed back into town to head for Aladdin's house and the lamp.

* * *

Nasira and her guards were still scouring the dungeon, convinced that the Order had not escaped and were simply lost somewhere in the perilous prison. After taking many twists and turns, they came upon the same dead end that the Order had stumbled upon not long ago. Razoul ended up smacking into the wall, followed by five other guards. Nasira sighed heavily and rubbed her forehead. "Idiots."

But low and behold, their clumsiness had opened the passageway out into the courtyard. A wave of realization hit Nasira.

"We've had no luck here in the dungeons, so they must have escaped out this passageway! Quickly, turn this whole palace upside down until you find them!" she commanded.

While the guards began searching the palace, Nasira interrogated the ones that should have been on duty. The few that had been scattered around said that they had seen no one roaming the palace or the grounds. Nasira sighed again, tense.

"How could they have escaped? The gates are closed, and all major exits are heavily guarded…"

"Maybe they had Aladdin's magic carpet with them." Razoul suggested.

"I didn't think of that. They could have easily escaped if they had that rug with them." she paused, and then continued. "Go ask the guard that let them in in the first place if they arrived on the carpet. If he doesn't answer, you know what to do." With that, Razoul and two other guards left out to carry out their commands.


End file.
